Honey, I'm home

In search of rare nectar, Anton heads back to Grootbos, where the pollinators are winged, the flowers are wild and the birding gets personal.

- TEXT ANTON CRONE

We had run out of honey. Not just any honey, but nectar spun from the rare Erica irregularis, a fynbos species that grows only at Grootbos Private Nature Reserve and on a few slopes nearby. Naturally, we had to return.

Sarah (my wife and enduring travel companion) and I trundled out of Cape Town, hugged Clarence Drive's dramatic coastline, wove through Hermanus and rolled past sleepy Stanford. With the R43 behind us and the Grootbos gate ahead, we felt the familiar lift in spirit - like coming home.

To a passing motorist, the landscape looks scrubby and windswept. To those who linger, it's a master class in flora, and restoration. We have grown to love this remarkable reserve, for the history, the mission to restore the local landscape, the wonders of the fynbos, and the milkwood forests as old as strandlopers.

In that mode, we kicked off our shoes to walk along the beach of Walker Bay, followed by a return visit to Klipgat Cave, led once again by Grootbos guide, Gareth Williams. The last time he brought us here, Covid rules had us in masks. I remember peeling mine down just enough to catch a whiff of the sea breeze - a rebellious act in the name of joy. Now, unmasked, we inhaled it all: salt, sun and the scent of the ocean wafting through the cave's wide mouth. Above us, African Black Swifts sliced the air, vanishing in and out of the shadows like sprites.